Looking ahead

It can be overwhelming and perhaps challenging to think about futures and try to come up with ideas on the spot. To help our futures thinking, Voros’ metaphor  of the ‘futures cone’ is a useful tool. Watch the video below for a 5-minute-introduction to the idea¹:

Now let’s apply this tool to our case. What does physics education in ten years look like? 

Here’s how it works:

1. Open the template I created by clicking on the image below. Don’t worry, you won’t need to sign-in to participate — you can remain completely anonymous if you wish.

2. To get your futures thinking gears going, start with the questions on the first page. How would you answer them? What future scenarios start forming in your mind as you ponder the questions?

3. Grab a new slide and, for your own context, note down the thoughts and ideas that are sparked by the questions. You don’t have to stick to strictly answering only these questions — instead, think of them as prompts to inspire visions. Where are they taking you? What are you imagining for physics education in ten years? 

You can sort your ideas into possible, plausible and probable futures and mark the ones that are preferable to you personally with blue boxes.

• • • Your futures ideas can be big or small, likely or unlikely, bright or dim — there really is no right or wrong here.
    • You can do this exercise anywhere you are as an individual — teacher, student, parent, activist, researcher, etc. 
    • Alternatively, you can bring the exercise into your institution and do it together with colleagues/partners/friends/etc.
    • Don’t forget to read through others’ futures ideas and get inspired. Perhaps you will further develop your own ideas or add new ones?

Be creative and have fun!

In our next step, we’ll think about outputs and strategy.

¹ Voros, J. (2003). A generic foresight process framework. Foresight, 5(3), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680310698379, p. 16.